Are Danelectro guitars any good? In a word: Yes. But reviews need a few more words than that. This article covers two of their instruments I’ve owned. There’s my Danelectro 12-string review and my Danelectro Longhorn review.
I have, or rather, I had two Danelectro guitars – My D59 12-string and a Longhorn bass. I parted ways with the Longhorn but more on that later…
First off, today’s Danelectro ain’t your granddaddy’s Danelectro. Like a lot of guitar manufacturers, there’ve been some changes here and there over the decades. The original Danelectro company began in New Jersey, in 1947, way back when Nathan Daniel started building guitar amps for Sears Roebuck. It’s not the same company today, in fact it even disappeared for a while before being brought back by the Evets Corporation. (For further reading, you can learn more about Danelectro’s history here and here.)
As a musician who’s also a voracious reader and history buff I’d naturally heard of them before. The list of Danelectro players is long indeed and their guitars and basses have been on a lot of hit records over the decades. It just took me a while to get around to trying one.
Danelectro D59 12-string
I’m a songwriter first and foremost and one thing I need in my “arsenal” is an electric 12-string. Previously, I played Rickenbackers. They’re supposed to be the gold standard for 12-strings but, for a variety of reasons, I’m not a fan of the company or, ultimately, their guitars. I’ve had two different Ric 330-12s and was never happy with them beyond the initial “Yay! I have a Ric!” moment which quickly fades.
When I was looking for a new 12-string the decision came down to a Gretsch Electromatic or a Danelectro. Danelectro won for two reasons: I loved the retro, quasi-art deco look and at $720.00 CDN it was almost half the price of the Gretsch.
The model I have, which is apparently no longer available, is the “D5912-Black”. It’s not the model I originally wanted. I really wanted the “Vintage” 12-string in aqua. Black guitars are everywhere, aqua, not so much.
It wasn’t available at the time so, being impatient, I went with what was in stock. I love my D59-12. It’s not perfect but I’ll take it over a guitar that’s four times the price with only a quarter of the playability any day.
The Pros
Danelectro 12-strings come stock with a 12-saddle bridge that allows you to intonate properly. If I’m playing up the neck the only time I want a chorus effect is if I’m using a pedal, not because I’ve got a six-saddle bridge on a 12-string guitar.
They also have a wider neck at the nut, measuring 1.78″ (45.2mm) as opposed to 1.63″ (41.2mm) on a standard Ric 12-string for example. That means I can actually play chords cleanly on the first few frets. For a wider neck on a Ric you have to go with a 660-12 or 1996Plus which is six times the price of a Danelectro 12-string.
Those two factors right there make Danelectro, for my tastes and needs, a much more playable winner right out of the box.
As for build quality, some dismiss the brand for its well known, much cheaper construction but I’ve had this guitar for over three years and I’m impressed. It’s incredibly stable. I’ve never had to adjust the truss rod. Not once.
I live in south western Ontario and we can get some crazy weather here. Our winters, although brief now, can be extremely cold and dry and our summers extremely hot and humid. I use a humidifier in the winter and air conditioners and a dehumidifier for most of the summer. This guitar takes it without batting an eye.
I don’t play a 12-string anywhere near as much as a six-string or bass. Prior to sitting down to write this article, it sat on the stand for over a month untouched. When I picked it up and plugged into the Boss TU-3 tuner on my board, it was still in tune. Not one string, not even either G, was off by a single cent. That’s some serious tuning stability.
The Cons
The “problems” I have with my D59-12 are really minor.
The bridge pickup on its own is a little too bright, bordering on shrill, unless I roll off the tone a bit or tweak my amp settings and the nut work could have been better. To be clear, it’s not bad. I’ve had guitars that cost much more with far worse stock nuts. It just could have been a bit better. That’s it. Not really any cons at all.
To Summarise – 9/10
I really don’t think you can go wrong with a Danelectro 12-string. The tone, the jangle and chime, everything you want and need in an electric 12-string is right there. And it’s incredibly affordable in comparison to other brands. If I ever want or need another 12-string down the road it will definitely be a Danelectro. In aqua.
Danelectro ’58 Longhorn
Sadly, I didn’t get lucky with my Longhorn.
My main bass, for writing and recording, will probably always be a Hofner but I wanted a second bass for a different tonal palette. Longhorn’s have a unique look and tone. Again, Danelectro guitars and basses have been on a lot of hit records. Hell, if Tom Petty used a Longhorn with the Traveling Wilburys that’s good enough for me.
I went with black because, while I didn’t want a black 12-string, I also didn’t want a copperburst Longhorn sitting next to a sunburst Hofner. I can only handle so many earth tones after all.
The Pros
I really wanted to like this bass. It has 24 frets and I play up the neck a lot. I loved the look and the “squawky” tone they’re known for. Three of the four strings sounded fantastic and… that’s where the “pros” ended for me with this particular bass.
The Cons
Some of what follows is part of the Longhorn design and some is… a “gear gremlin” I guess.
With the Longhorn, in my opinion, 24 frets are a waste of fret wire. One strap peg is located where the neck meets the body, around the 18th fret while the cutaways, in theory, allow access to all 24 frets. If you use a strap when you’re playing your hand meets it at the 18th fret and there you stop. But I didn’t play up that high anyhow because this particular bass didn’t intonate. Not even close.
I’ve had my share of guitars over the years. I’m used to not having individual, adjustable saddles for each string on all of my instruments. My Tele has three brass saddles. My Gretsch has a floating, rocking bar bridge. I’ve had two Hofners and they use a floating bridge with little pieces of fret wire for saddles. And all of the above intonate almost perfectly for me. Not so the Longhorn and I think the bridge design is its weak point.
The saddle is a block of rosewood… well, pau ferro now. In theory you can get the E and G intonated and the A and D fall where they will which is usually close. Not so for me. Even with the strings slacked off, the wood would not move. I would have had to remove the bridge completely to get to the screw underneath the saddle to loosen it enough to move it. The entire assembly, as you can see above, rests on three legs and it already had a sag in the middle, on a brand new bass. And the holes the strings feed through at the back are so small I had to unravel half of the silk wrap on a set of flatwound strings to fit them through.
The “Gear Gremlin”
Short-scale bases have a reputation for the E string sounding “off” in relation to the other strings compared to a standard 34″ long-scale bass. Sometimes it’s a tension issue and the E string is “floppy” compared to the others. Sometimes the notes, open or fretted, just don’t have the same tonal quality of the other strings. My Longhorn was no exception.
The E string rattled when played open and there was no sustain, no resonance at all. Putting a tiny piece of paper in the nut slot eliminated the rattle. Pushing down on the string between the nut and the tuning also made the open note sound “whole”. Normally, that’s a simple enough fix. An extra wind on the string and/or a little filing of nut slot to correct the break angle and Bob’s your uncle.
This bass never got either fix. Longhorns use smaller guitar tuners so an extra wind was impossible. Filing the slot wasn’t done because a bizarre problem reared its ugly head when I switched the stock D’Addario rounds for a set of their Chrome flatwounds.
When it comes to playing bass, I’m a flatwound player. When I put the Chromes on the E string went crazy. The only way to describe the sound is that it was like hitting a piece of rebar with a lead pipe while underwater. It was the strangest, weirdest, clanking, plinky metallic sound I’ve ever heard and the further up the neck you went the clankier and plinkier it got.
I have fairly decent gear. My bass amp is a Fender Rumble 100 V3 and I play through a Keeley Bassist Compressor pedal and the E string was always peaking. Even takin the pedal out and going direct to the amp produced the same clanking results.
I reached out to Danelectro and D’Addario for some help. (Note: I’m not sure about the rest of the world but in Canada D’Addario handles the distribution and customer service for Danelectro.)
We exchanged a few emails, spoke on the phone and the bass was shipped, via the dealer, to D’Addario’s Canadian office. They tried to fix it, thought they had, and shipped it back to the store. I tested it in the store on a Fender Rumble 40 at low volume. It seemed ok but when I got it home it was clank, peak, clank, peak all over again.
Wanting to have a Longhorn, wanting this to work out, I took it to my town’s resident electronics wizard. I even took my amp and pedal in case the problem was there. My amp and pedal were fine, which I expected since my Hofner and the Mustang PJ bass I’d tried had zero issues playing through them. Plugging in the Longhorn and turning the volume over 2 made everything in his shop rattle and jump and his conclusion was that the pickup on the E side was extremely hot.
For whatever reason, this bass just did not and would not play well with my amp. Was it the string(s)? The pickups? Another electronic issue with the bass? The pairing of the amp, pedal, aluminum nut and the strings? Was it that my office/music room is between the kitchen and bathroom, that the apartment building I’m in is 40 years old and a clamp was loose on a pipe in the wall? The perfect storm of all of it combined?
I hate mysteries, I try solving them but finally, I just gave up, took the hit and lost money trading in the Longhorn.
To Summarise – 3/10
Danelectro and D’Addario Customer Service
While I’m only batting .500 with the two Danelectro models I’ve tried, I always say – “Credit where it’s due, criticism when it’s valid”. And so full props to both Danelectro and D’Addario Canada for what I consider stellar customer service.
Back when I was shopping for the 12-string there were no aqua models anywhere in Canada. I reached out to Michelle at Danelectro, asking about their availability. She put me in touch with Suzanne at D’Addario Canada.
Suzanne offered to get me the aqua model I wanted but by that time I’d already gone ahead and bought my black D59-12. As I’d mentioned to her that I used D’Addario strings on all of my electrics she asked me what set I wanted and sent me one. While a set of EXL115W isn’t expensive I thought it was a great customer service gesture.
When I had issues with the Longhorn I reached out to Michelle again. She offered to send me a new nut and Suzanne had the bass shipped to them and their techs tried to fix it, And when it was shipped back it was packed to survive pretty much anything. There were foam wedges inside the case to protect the bass from moving around and the dealer told me the case was wrapped in bubble wrap. I’ve seen dealers and manufacturers ship far more expensive gear with far less protection so I was impressed once again.
I have nothing but good things to say about the customer service I’ve received from both Michelle and Suzanne. They’re credits to their respective companies.
There are bigger, more famous guitar brands providing indifferent at best, and outright abysmal at worst, customer service. But not Danelectro and D’Addario. I was really impressed.
And even with the bass not working out, that’s just one particular bass. It’s not every Longhorn. Danelectro still make good guitars. I won’t hesitate to try them again. I still really, really want that Aqua 12-string.
To Summarise – 11/10
Yes, it goes to 11. Overall, I think they’re a pretty good company. They make unique gear and still care about the player after the sale.
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